Uprising sending shockwaves through Saudi monarchy: Analyst

The demonstrators on Sunday chanted slogans against the repressive regime of Al Saud.

Sheikh Nemr was attacked, injured and arrested by Saudi security forces while driving from a farm to his house in Qatif on July 8.
He is currently in a military hospital in the city of Dhahran.

The family of the detained Shia cleric was allowed to visit him for the first time since his arrest on Sunday.

An interview with Mohsen Saleh, professor at the Lebanese University, to hear his opinion on this issue.

Q: Will Saudi authorities be able to calm the situation in the east of the country, since their escalation in violence and the arrest of prominent figures like Sheikh al-Nemr?

Saleh: Well the Saudi monarchy was really astounded and surprised by these demonstrations and the insistence of the people really to go into the streets and demand what they need to have.

I guess they lack freedom, they lack the foundations for human rights and also they lack all kinds of social welfare.

This kind of regime won’t really stand up to the needs of the people and I guess now the regime is in a great contest with the people and now the Saudis, the Saudis I mean the family not the country, not the people. The people are really against this monarchy, against the American intervention in this country.

    And now the people in the eastern part and in Bahrain and probably will this move go into other cities in Saudi Arabia will make a lot of changes and the international community, that’s what really should be noticed that the international community started to criticize this monarchy and the changes in Saudi Arabia will come soon.

Q: Professor what is then the Saudi game plan going forward vis-a-vis the movements that many already see as a revolution-of-sorts?

Saleh: Well the Saudis thought that they are far-fetched from these movements in the Arab world and the Islamic world. But I guess now it is the turn of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi people, the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula not the Saudis. I won’t say the Saudis because not all the people live in the Peninsula are Saudis. They do not belong; they are not slaves of the Saudis.

The Saudis are from a family of Al Saud and the people there they should say something about their rights.
And now these demonstrations will really bring about and up in the way to the people to express what they have really for centuries probably from the 18 century till now and 19 century and now fed up with this kind of atrocities and these kind of family taking the wealth and the lives of the people in Saudi Arabia.

    And now the eastern part started and it is about time for the other districts in Saudi Arabia to come. And I guess borders in Bahrain and in Yemen will come about in order to topple this regime.

It is an end, the beginning of the end of the Saudi family and the Saudi monarchy. They belong to the Middle Ages. I guess they should go there.